Great is the art of

beginning, but greater is the art of

ending.

- Lazarus Long

Or…..55 Ways to Leave a Lesson

Closure

Presented by

Ann Sipeasipe@gsd200.org

Millie Brezinskimbrezinski@9mile.org

Additional content by

Scott Haury

Purpose /Objective

Participants will have the tools to use closure in a meaningful way that will increase academic achievement in their classrooms

I can define closure

I did explore some brain research

I can identify a variety of closure strategies

I can explain benefits for students and

teacher

I will commit to using closure

Lesson Closure - Success Criteria

Does not mean to pack up and move on –

It is ….

A cognitive activity that helps focus on what was learned and whether it made sense and had meaning.

Definition: CLOSURE

what the instructor does to facilitate understanding at the end of a learning episode

it can be a quick review, to remind students what it was that they have learned (or should have learned) and connect it to what they already know.

Definition: CLOSURE

For Best Learning Results:

The intellectual work should be done by the students – not the instructor summarizing for the students and telling them what they learned.

Teaching can be a little like…..

Please take a few minutes to fill out your own personal teaching timeline.

The timeline should reflect a “typical” day in your classroom from beginning to end

What does herding cats look like in your classroom?

Beginning End

My Personal Timeline

Brain Research – a little experiment

Retention during a learning episode

You will see a list of 10 words You will try to memorize the words

AND their position on the list

• You will have 12 seconds

A Little ExperimentWORD

1. KEF

2. LAK

3. MIL

4. NIR

5. VEK

6. LUN

7. NEM

8. BEB

9. SAR

10. FIF

2

Let’s see how well we did

WORD1. KEF2. LAK3. MIL4. NIR5. VEK6. LUN7. NEM8. BEB9. SAR10. FIF

NUMBER CORRECT

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Memory Experiment Debrief

What were the results? Why do you think this happened? Brain research indicates it easier to

recall the first or last word than the middle.

This is due to the primacy-recency effects on a list like this one..

The Primacy-Recency Effect

The primacy-recency effect is the tendency to remember: What comes first BEST What comes last SECOND What comes in the middle THIRD

What happens when the learning episode lengthens?

Alternatives to longer learning episodes

Implications for teaching

Now take a minute collect your thoughts about How this might inform your practice Something that excited you Something you still have a question on or

are concerned about Please jot down one thought and turn

to someone near and share

54 ways to leave a lesson Please take the next 20 minutes and familiarize

yourself in a group of at least two, and no larger than 4, with the different lesson closure strategies.

Try and categorize the strategies into: Tried and True Interesting, I would like to try this Watch out

Have 5 from each category ready to share out to the whole group and one you would use to close this session

Time to share your thoughts

SUHUPU---Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up Person with the birthday closest to March 18th

(my birthday ) is person A, and you will begin

Introduce yourself, what and where you teach, and share something from your graphic organizer

Switch---person B now goes Thank each other SUHUPU someone else

Closure Does Not Happen by Accident

Turn and talk to a neighbor about how you might deal with the challenges of getting time for closure

Strategies that have worked for youStrategies you have heard that might work

Benefit to Student Closure allows students to • Summarize main ideas• Evaluate class processes• Answer questions posed at the

beginning of the lesson• Make connections to both the past

and the future.• Make MEANING of the work

Benefit to Teacher

Closure is an opportunity for formative assessment and helps the instructor decide:

1. if additional practice is needed

2. whether you need to reteach

3. Evaluate if you can move on to the next part of the lesson or skip ahead because they already have the concepts

Success Criteria

A. I can define lesson closure

B. I explored some brain research

C. I can identify a variety of closure

strategies

D. I can explain benefits for students and

teacher

E. I will use closure to maximize learning

Lesson Closure - Success Criteria

http://washingtonmathcoaches.pbworks.com

asipe@gsd200.org